Natasha Foote

Would you believe that the #HandsOffNature omnibus has been stopped by… administrative burden

While the police check every single paper, I’m on board along with @wwf.eu @birdlifeeurope.bsky.social & others hearing about the EU’s political U turns & why it’s driving policy in the wrong direction 🚌

a man is yawning while talking on a cell phone with the word show written above him ALT: a man is yawning while talking on a cell phone with the word show written above him

All agri folks right now a day on from the announcement of the new CAP… without the publication of the actual proposal

Raises serious questions of how journalists are supposed to scrutinise what is on the table when all we have for now is the Commission’s spin on things?

Update: seems like the EU budget proposal and the new CAP proposal will come on the same day, on 16 July

Hope no agri stakeholders have planned a holiday in July…

Pruning the EU’s Farming Policy: Have CAP's Green Shoots Survived the Shears? | Agricultural and Rural Convention The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is once again being trimmed down to size, with the Commission reaching for the shears in an attempt to cut back what it sees as an overgrown subsidy programme...

🌱 Has the EU's farming policy lost its green edge?
✂️ As the #CAP gets pruned, are environmental goals being trimmed too?
@natashafoote.bsky.social digs into the details: What’s left of the #GreenDeal in the new CAP revisions?
🔗 www.arc2020.eu/pruning-the-...

#CAPStrategicPlans #CAPreform

Exclusive: Israeli proposal details possible post-Hamas Gaza plan A document reviewed by Euronews reveals one possible avenue Israel could explore to create a new entity in Gaza post-Hamas.

🚨 If you read one thing this weekend, make it this

Huge scoop from @eleonoravasques.bsky.social unveiling Israel's plans - confirmed by govt sources to be one of the options currently on the table - to take over Gaza after defeating Hamas

www.euronews.com/2025/05/16/e...

Some dates for the diary:

The new EU budget proposal (MFF) will come on 16 July, and will be followed closely by the new CAP post-2027 reform proposal. Not clear yet if it will be a 'two for the price of one' deal on the same day, but it will be in quick succession

And I’m not the only one thinking this

Sorry, is @ec.europa.eu actually kicking off its Agri Vision conference with a manel? Visionary…

#EUAgriVision

Spilling Europe’s Dirty Secrets: Uncorking the Toxic Trade in Banned Pesticides | Agricultural and Rural Convention Pesticides deemed too toxic for Europe are still being produced here and sold abroad to be sprayed on fields where farm workers live, work, and raise their children – but these are also fields that he...

Around 57 dangerous pesticides banned in the EU are still used in South Africa. Some are neurotoxic, others cause cancer or harm the environment

Yet it is often EU companies that produce & export these pesticides

My deep dive from the ground for @arc2020.bsky.social www.arc2020.eu/spilling-eur...

Why Simplification of CAP May Get Complicated | Agricultural and Rural Convention A simpler, streamlined EU farming subsidy programme can only be a good thing … right? Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Here, Natasha Foote digs into what we currently know about the next s...

A simpler, streamlined EU farming subsidy programme can only be a good thing … right? @natashafoote.bsky.social digs in:
www.arc2020.eu/why-simplifi...
#CAP

I’ve been in South Africa this week to learn about the impacts of the EU’s trade in banned pesticides on the ground

This is Dina, who used to work on vineyards before her lungs were too damaged to continue working, and this is her message to EU policymakers

New vote could take new GMOs one step closer to EU fields and plates EU countries are teetering on the brink of an agreement which would take new GMOs one step closer to our plates and several steps back from current protections governing the technology. What’s happeni...

🚨 The EU has taken another step towards loosening its rules on genetic technologies with today’s Council vote setting the ball rolling towards deregulation 🧬

More to follow, but I already outlined what the next steps will be in my latest for @arc2020.bsky.social www.arc2020.eu/new-vote-cou...

So thoughtful of the Council to schedule this treat for my birthday

New vote could take new GMOs one step closer to EU fields and plates EU countries are teetering on the brink of an agreement which would take new GMOs one step closer to our plates and several steps back from current protections governing the technology. What’s happeni...

🚨EU countries are teetering on the brink of an agreement which would take new genomic techniques one step closer to our fields & plates

Who are the key players to watch & what does this mean for next steps? All you need to know in my latest for @arc2020.bsky.social 🧬

www.arc2020.eu/new-vote-cou...

The Food Sovereignty Scandal Made in France | Agricultural and Rural Convention France has more than enough land to feed its inhabitants. Yet almost half of French farmland serves the global export trade. Food sovereignty will remain a pipe dream as long as the absurd globalised ...

New report by Terre de Liens catalogues the absurdities of the globalised food system
www.arc2020.eu/the-food-sov...

The Food Sovereignty Scandal Made in France | Agricultural and Rural Convention France has more than enough land to feed its inhabitants. Yet almost half of French farmland serves the global export trade. Food sovereignty will remain a pipe dream as long as the absurd globalised ...

Did you know nearly half of France's agricultural land is used for exports? But that it grows enough to feed itself 130%?

Learn more about how France "is mortgaging its food sovereignty" in the latest from @arc2020.bsky.social on the recent Terre de Liens report

www.arc2020.eu/the-food-sov...

🧬 Looks like EU countries are gearing up to vote on their position on new genomic techniques on 14 March, which is not the birthday present I asked for this year

The blocking minority seems to be just about still holding for the moment, but it's thin

Une agriculture compétitive, équitable et durable pour l’Europe (dans cet ordre là)

🚨On the EU's plans to loosen rules on new genomic techniques - EU countries are edging much closer to an agreement

Sources say 🇧🇪 (who could help tip the ⚖️) is trying to support, but is still stuck on a few points on patents

It won’t go to a Coreper vote before 12 March

Shortsighted Vision: Unpacking EU’s new agrifood policy plans The EU has unveiled its new Vision for Agriculture and Food which, despite the name, is not exactly what you would call ‘visionary’. So what does the EU’s new agricultural game plan envisage – or not ...

Well, the Commission promised an evolution, not a revolution – & that is exactly what we got. It’s unfortunate this is one of the times the Commission kept its promises

I unpack the EU's new Vision for Agriculture & Food in my latest for @arc2020.bsky.social 👇

www.arc2020.eu/shortsighted...

Agri Commissioner: "Eco-schemes are the proof that incentives rather than imposition is working in the CAP"

Meanwhile...

.@gerardofortuna.bsky.social puts his finger on the pulse - or lackthereof, asking if the announcement of the EU's vision marks the official death of the Farm to Fork

“The way of working has clearly changed towards those reductions that are needed," Commissioner @CHansenEU replies

"It is not acceptable that we prohibit the use of certain plant protection products inside the EU, but the food produced with that very same product is still coming in. Not only is that unfair competition, but if it is a threat to human health or bees here, it is also a threat outside the EU"

Apparently the Commission just said it's an old leak, but it's dated 10 Feb. But with the long internal process, it means it's pretty much oven ready

Unless they rip it up & start again, I can't see anything revolutionary coming out of this. If I were in the dialogue, I'd be a bit pissed

First thoughts is that it’s like reading a knock-off Farm to Fork with less ambition

I don’t see anything truly innovative in there, besides some tougher language on trade and a few new strategies?

Curious to hear your thoughts

LEAK: A sneak peek at the EU's new blueprint for agrifood policy Tough on trade, but more lax on CAP – that’s a quick summary of the EU's new blueprint for agriculture and food, according to a leaked draft that ARC2020 got its hands on. So what’s on the menu for ag...

🚨 Got my hands on a leak of the Commission’s Vision on Agriculture & Food - want to know what’s on the menu?

Here I’ve laid it out for you on a plate, in my latest for @arc2020.bsky.social 👇

www.arc2020.eu/leak-a-sneak...

A 'closer coordination' you say, hmmmm

From the leak of the EU's vision on agriculture and food - more hints of a budgetary merge between cohesion and CAP

I'm writing up the juiciest bits now as we speak - watch this space 👀

Soon on @arc2020.bsky.social

🚨 LEAK Commission's Vision for Agriculture & Food:

-Capping & degressivity of CAP payments
-Less conditions, more flexibility on CAP
-Generational renewal strategy
-'Level playing field' for trade (👇)
-Review animal welfare legislation & public procurement
-More emphasis on private investments

"Beware of jargon. If you are a [EU reporter] this is doubly important. You occasionally have to bandy words that no ordinary human ever uses, like [MFF, Coreper, DG & CAP] so you really don't want to be effulgent or felicitous as well"

Wise words for us all from the late, great Tim Radford